Touch of Fate

Chapter 257: Might Makes Right

The pressure on Mike's mana shield continued to increase in intensity as the dark winds howled from every corner of the battlefield before converging on Kultanis's form. With his mana reserves rapidly depleting, he wasn't sure how much longer he could keep this up. Squeezing his eyes shut, he devoted every ounce of willpower into maintaining the barrier.

Thankfully, the storm soon began to abate, and within a few moments, the air started to clear. Tentatively raising his head, Mike glanced around at the battlefield. The spot where Kultanis had been floating was now encased in an orb of grey energy, roughly 5 meters in diameter. At the moment, it seemed to be stable, although he was vaguely reminded of a cocoon for reasons he couldn't quite verbalize.

The plain they'd been fighting on had been virtually wiped clean of life for at least half a kilometer in every direction. The zombies, which had been holding a somewhat respectful distance, had all collapsed in place. Mike thought he saw a few members of the strike force amongst them, bodies desiccated and withered, as if they had aged decades before dying. Even the grass itself had been killed in the storm of necromantic energy and, with the exception of a small circle around his feet, was uniformly brown and brittle, crumbling to dust at the merest touch of the wind.

Among the dead, however, a few things still moved. A small army of Skeletal Warriors, Death Knights, fleshy abominations, and a variety of other undead monstrosities picked their way through the corpse field. As far as he could tell, they were gathering and moving towards the south for some purpose. Whatever the reason, however, he didn't have the time or the ability to deal with them right now.

Cariel was a few meters away, although the globe of golden energy that had been surrounding her was cracked and apparently on the verge of shattering. It seemed that she had been able to weather the blast. At the moment she was pressed up against the side of her shield, and looked to be feebly beating on it with one hand. It took him a few moments to realize that she'd somehow trapped herself.

Standing up, he jogged over and kicked at a spot that looked a bit more fragile than the rest. With a sound like shattering glass, the orb exploded into motes of light, leaving a gasping Cariel on the ground.

"HA...HA...thanks." She managed to squeeze out. "Forgot I needed to breathe."

"...Is that something you'd normally...no, never mind." He replied while rubbing his forehead. "This is probably a long shot, but do you have any idea about what's going on over there?"

The orb had started to slowly descend towards the ground, and he could see what looked like distorted and agonized faces sliding across its surface.

"Hm...not really, but I don't think its a good idea to mess with it at the moment." Cariel commented after staring at it for a few seconds.

"Really? Why?"

"Doesn't it look like a bubble about to burst?" She replied with a mildly confused look on her face. "Wouldn't it explode if we touched it?"

[...That actually makes a fair bit of sense. Of course, the question is, would that be better than letting him finish whatever he's doing in there?]

Mike had a strange mental image of the lich emerging from the gray sphere with a pair of colorful butterfly wings, but quickly dismissed it. He scanned his surroundings once more.

[If this is the period of vulnerability the corpse mentioned, then the assassin should be attacking soon. Judging from the way it was acting, I doubt it would halt it's plans merely because I wasn't working with it.]

After a few moments, he caught sight of a two people standing on a hill nearly a kilometer away. It was difficult to tell at this distance, but he could only assume that it was the corpse and the Prime Minister observing from relative safety.

[That means that the assassin should be somewhere...]

A sudden pressure exploded over him while he was still in the middle of hunting for the elusive woman. The air seemed to grow thicker and it became difficult to breath. With a sound not unlike the screech of torn metal, the grey sphere ripped apart and revealed its contents.

Kultanis's armor had disappeared or been burned away in the eruption of his ascension.

As a result, he'd essentially emerged from the necrotic cocoon naked, giving Mike his first look at the undead's actual appearance.

The Skull Lord, for all intents and purposes, was a human skeleton. His bones were a shade of reflective dark grey, making them seem almost metallic or artificial. Each of his arms terminated in grasping bony hands equipped with wickedly sharp claws. Floating in his eye sockets were two orbs of pale, white light which coldly regarded the world from above a mouth of filed silver teeth.

More importantly, however, was the change in atmosphere surrounding the lich. Before, he'd been a terrifying figure, easily one of the strongest Mike had ever faced. Now though, Kultanis was giving off the same kind of vibes he once associated with Brutus and the Crimson Disaster when they got serious.

As the Skull Lord focused his inhuman gaze on Mike, the icy grip of fear beginning to claw its way up his spine. Staring into those floating globes of light, all strength fled his limbs, and it was all he could do to hold himself upright. He was still fighting to regain control of his body when a well timed distraction arrived.

The assassin appeared behind Kultanis, little more than a blur of barely perceived motion, and before he could even respond, she scythed her blade at his neck, aiming at a point between two vertebrae.

For a moment, Mike thought the fight was over. If he were attacked in that manner, he doubted any of his skills could save him from being decapitated. However, the Skull Lord was apparently different.

With a clang, the assassin's dagger stopped a few centimeters away from the Kultanis's neck as if it struck some kind of invisible barrier. There was a brief glimpse of a confused female face in air over his shoulder before he whirled and stabbed at her with one clawed hand.

Mike heard, rather than saw, the blow strike home, sinking into the assassin's torso with a gruesome squelch. Kultanis stood there for a moment, seemingly savoring the sensation, before flicking his arm to one side, sending the nearly invisible woman flying several meters.

"IS THAT THE BEST YOU CAN DO, YOU RELIC?!" The skeleton roared. "DID YOU THINK I WAS UNAWARE OF YOUR SCHEMES?! YOUR JEALOUSY?!"

He lifted both arms into the air, one darkened with crimson blood. "I WILL FINISH CLEANSING THIS CONTINENT OF LIFE, AND THEN I SHALL COME FOR YOU!"

While he was distracted with this tirade, Mike managed to recover. Trying to be surreptitious, he attempted to signal Cariel to attack. Unfortunately, this proved to be as difficult as he feared.

The paladin merely watched his gestures with a vacant expression, head moving to follow his hand. Eventually, she frowned in confusion. "What are you doing?"

Mike facepalmed and took a few precious seconds to calm down before pointing at Kultanis, who was still yelling at the sky, "I'm trying to tell you to attack him while he's distracted."

"Oh, then why didn't you say so." She replied cheerfully while shouldering her shield once more.

Mike heard a cracking noise coming from somewhere nearby, and quickly realized it was the sound of his teeth grinding together as he clenched his jaw. Intentionally relaxing the clenched muscles, he followed after Cariel, already worried about his chances for success.

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Faril lowered the spyglass and glanced over at his companion. "She failed, and I think she might be dead. Its a bit hard to tell from this distance, but it looks like Kultanis had some sort of protective shield."

Any further observations were interrupted by the undead in question going on a tirade. Judging from the words used, Faril assumed that he was directing his anger at the Archlich.

"Interesting." The corpse commented dryly.

"What? That Vivienne failed?" He asked in response, feeling a surge of anger at the entity's apparent disregard for the situation. "Why in the hells are you so calm?!"

"Not at all." The corpse smiled. "Vivienne's failure was unfortunate, but not exactly unexpected. I doubted that she'd be able to get the job done without the Dragonknight's full support. No, I much more interested in Kultanis's current state. More specifically, his emotional state."

Faril placed his eye to the spyglass and looked at the Skull Lord again. Even from this distance, simply laying eyes on that evil creature gave him chills, especially when those pale orbs turned his way. Hurried, he put the glass down again. "What about it?"

"Well, its rather interesting that he has one at all. You see, contrary to popular opinion, sentient undead do have emotions, they just tend to be very muted. This becomes even more true the longer a particular undead creature exists. A lich of Kultanis's age should have some degree of jubilation at his success, but nowhere near this amount. Its almost as if...my, my. How creative." The corpse trailed off with a speculative look on his face.

"Almost as if what?" Faril asked, unable to contain his curiosity.

"Someone is influencing Kultanis's mental state, forcing him to become more emotional. Normally such a thing would be near impossible, especially now that he's achieved Tier 4, but there is one ritual which might be able to accomplish it. One would simply have to have the right kind of reagents for it."

"Really? What's the point? I get that it would make him more likely to make mistakes, but it hardly changes the fact that he's become so powerful it doesn't really matter."

"If this is the ritual I think it is, then the effect is only starting to show. It will grow stronger as time wears on, and should eventually drive him mad."

"How is that any better?!" Faril exclaimed. Horrified by the thought of an insane Tier 4 creature loose in Almir.

"Madmen are often viewed as being unpredictable." The corpse replied with a chuckle. "In truth, they simply act according to a different set of rules. If you know them, then controlling a madman's behavior becomes a simple matter of introducing the right stimulus."

It paused for a few seconds as a flash of light signaled the renewed battle between the Skull Lord and the Dragonknight. "Did I ever explain Kultanis's origin to you?"

"No."

"Well, let me begin by saying that this," It gestured down to the body of the former king, "was not the first member of the Almiran royal family to rise in undeath."

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The Author's Note function is more restrictive than I thought, so I will be adding the biography entries to the end of these chapters. Additionally, I've gone ahead and put together a "Biographies" chapter in the Auxiliary section, which will include additional context information and be updated as I go along.

There were several good suggestions of where to start with these, but after some introspection, I decided to focus first on the most influential and least seen individuals, the Five Creator Gods of Ea. We'll begin with the one we've had the most experience with so far, Aminatrea.

As a point of reference, it would difficult to cover all aspects of deity level entities in these short entries, so I've narrowed it down to three categories that should include the majority of the relevant information: Titles and Appearance, Personality and Interactions with the Mortal World, and Spheres of Influence.

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Aminatrea

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Also known as the Goddess of the Sun, Mother of Light, Mistress of the Skies, Sovereign of Fire, and a host of other regional names and titles, Aminatrea is one of the Five Creator Gods of Ea and is viewed as their leader by mortal worshipers. The truth is a little more complicated. While she lacks any actual authority over her fellows, she sees herself as the first among equals, and often tries to overtly direct their actions.

Like all of the greater gods, she has no definite form, but often appears as a graceful young woman seemingly made entirely of light, whose radiance is painful to look upon. Her voice is said to sound like notes plucked from the finest harp, and her presence is said to be simultaneously comforting and enchanting.

She is frequently associated with birds, and her sacred animal is said to be a Phoenix.

Personality

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Thanks to millennia of cultivating an image of herself as a responsible and dedicated goddess that strives to help the unfortunate, defend the weak, and punish the unjust, she is viewed by the people of Ea as the epitome of holy virtue.

Truthfully, she is an irresponsible meddler, who uses her position as one of the Creators to pursue her own interpretation of justice. This includes a zero tolerance policy on beings she classifies as evil or unnatural, such as the undead, demons, and certain kinds of monsters. As such, her angelic legions are often deployed to various realms to combat the growth of these forces, while her mortal followers attempt to do the same on Ea.

She is also the only one of the Five Creator Gods who goes out of her way to punish serious transgressions against her churches or priests, earning her faith a fearsome reputation. The methods vary from minor (such as the destruction of important goods) to lethal (incineration in a beam of intense light) depending on the nature of the transgression. As a result, her clergy tend to exercise a great deal influence on mortal authorities, as most leaders are hesitant to make enemies of someone with a creator deity backing them up.

Among other gods, she tends to be bossy and overbearing. This makes her somewhat popular with the more militaristic of the Ascended, who are accustomed to more rigid hierarchies than the nebulous collection of independent factions that actually rules the Heavenly Realms. However, she often suffers setbacks when confronting the other creators due to her inability to garner assistance from others. As such, hers is usually considered the weakest faction outside of Yilon's.

Spheres of influence

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Aminatrea governs the Aspects of Sun, Sky, Light, Fire, and to a lesser extent Nobility and Justice. As such, she is commonly worshiped in all corners of Ea to some extent or another, with the notable exception of Lacot for obvious reasons. Her most devoted followers include judges, magistrates, rulers, bureaucrats, and other government functionaries, although she is frequently called upon by soldiers and knights who ask for her blessing in battle.

Most of the sentient races of Ea pay her some degree of homage, due in large part to her association with the Sun, and its not uncommon to encounter her shrines and temples in most major communities.

She is the patron goddess of the Sun Elves, and a member of the Triune of Mirithia. Her elven followers tend to worship her mostly in her Aspect as the Goddess of Fire. As a result, Fire Elemental mages enjoy a high standing in Sun Elf society.

Aminatrea is less commonly worshiped among certain populations, especially those who tend to be nocturnal or live underground. Due to her uncompromising hatred of the undead, Lacotians, and those in a similar state of unlife, tend to treat her as an enemy.